IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v3y2018i11d10.1038_s41560-018-0240-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The cost of reliability in decentralized solar power systems in sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan T. Lee

    (Energy and Resources Group University of California)

  • Duncan S. Callaway

    (Energy and Resources Group University of California)

Abstract

Although there is consensus that both grid extensions and decentralized projects are necessary to approach universal electricity access, existing electrification planning models that assess the costs of decentralized solar energy systems do not include metrics of reliability or quantify the impact of reliability on costs. We focus on stand-alone household solar systems with battery storage in sub-Saharan Africa using the fraction of demand served to measure reliability, and develop a multistep optimization to compute efficiently the least-cost system with the fraction of demand served as a design constraint, and take into account the daily variation in solar resources and costs of solar and storage. We show that the cost of energy is minimized at approximately a 90% fraction of demand served, that current costs increase, on average, by US$0.11 kWh–1 for each additional ‘9’ of reliability, and that this reliability premium could be as low as US$0.03 kWh–1 in a plausible future price scenario.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan T. Lee & Duncan S. Callaway, 2018. "The cost of reliability in decentralized solar power systems in sub-Saharan Africa," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(11), pages 960-968, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:3:y:2018:i:11:d:10.1038_s41560-018-0240-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-018-0240-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-018-0240-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41560-018-0240-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeuland, Marc & Babyenda, Peter & Beyene, Abebe & Hinju, Gabriel & Mulwa, Richard & Phillips, Jonathan & Zewdie, Samuel A., 2023. "Barriers to off-grid energy development: Evidence from a comparative survey of private sector energy service providers in Eastern Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    2. David Abdul Konneh & Harun Or Rashid Howlader & Ryuto Shigenobu & Tomonobu Senjyu & Shantanu Chakraborty & Narayanan Krishna, 2019. "A Multi-Criteria Decision Maker for Grid-Connected Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems Selection Using Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-36, February.
    3. Abdul Conteh & Mohammed Elsayed Lotfy & Kiptoo Mark Kipngetich & Tomonobu Senjyu & Paras Mandal & Shantanu Chakraborty, 2019. "An Economic Analysis of Demand Side Management Considering Interruptible Load and Renewable Energy Integration: A Case Study of Freetown Sierra Leone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, May.
    4. Adewuyi, Oludamilare Bode & Lotfy, Mohammed E. & Akinloye, Benjamin Olabisi & Rashid Howlader, Harun Or & Senjyu, Tomonobu & Narayanan, Krishna, 2019. "Security-constrained optimal utility-scale solar PV investment planning for weak grids: Short reviews and techno-economic analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C), pages 16-30.
    5. Wadim Strielkowski & Lubomír Civín & Elena Tarkhanova & Manuela Tvaronavičienė & Yelena Petrenko, 2021. "Renewable Energy in the Sustainable Development of Electrical Power Sector: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-24, December.
    6. Robert Van Buskirk & Lawrence Kachione & Gilbert Robert & Rachel Kanyerere & Christina Gilbert & James Majoni, 2021. "How to Make Off-Grid Solar Electric Cooking Cheaper Than Wood-Based Cooking," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-21, July.
    7. Liao, Chuan & Erbaugh, James T. & Kelly, Allison C. & Agrawal, Arun, 2021. "Clean energy transitions and human well-being outcomes in Lower and Middle Income Countries: A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    8. Raul Rotar & Sorin Liviu Jurj & Flavius Opritoiu & Mircea Vladutiu, 2021. "Fault Coverage-Aware Metrics for Evaluating the Reliability Factor of Solar Tracking Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Jing Zhang & Roger Raufer & Lingxuan Liu, 2020. "Solar Home Systems for Clean Cooking: A Cost–Health Benefit Analysis of Lower-Middle-Income Countries in Southeast Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-14, May.
    10. Gorman, Will & Jarvis, Stephen & Callaway, Duncan, 2020. "Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The importance of electricity rate design for household defection from the power grid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    11. Schauf, Magnus & Schwenen, Sebastian, 2023. "System price dynamics for battery storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    12. Xu, Qingyang & Sun, Feihu & Cai, Qiran & Liu, Li-Jing & Zhang, Kun & Liang, Qiao-Mei, 2022. "Assessment of the influence of demand-side responses on high-proportion renewable energy system: An evidence of Qinghai, China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 945-958.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:3:y:2018:i:11:d:10.1038_s41560-018-0240-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.